I should be grateful for any advice or leads on how to land an English teaching job in Salvador. Next June I'll be leaving the college in the Middle East where I've been teaching for the past twelve years. I have an MA in TESL, a CELTA and am an examiner and trainer for the Cambride PET exam. My IELTS certifications has lagged but I plan to recertify. I am also an examiner for the Cambridge BEC (business) exam.

I haven't tried to work in Salvador, but have worked in Recife, Ilheus, Victoria, Rio and Porto Allegre. A friend of mine is up there, in Salvador, and I can give you his email address if you request- I haven't heard from him for some months, but he may answer you.

You have similar qualifications as I do, and I'm in the Middle East right now, as well. (also planning to desist soon and go down there, but to the south of Brazil)

I've lived in Brazil for about 6 years and have a residence card and work papers, through marriage.

I think that you have a fairly easy time finding some kind of teaching employment. If you want to teach in college or university, many universites have concoursos, or qualifying exams, that you may have to take to qualify for the position, even though you may have the academic degrees and experience. Thus, this must be done some months before the academic year starts in February or March.

I taught for a year as a professor visitante- and for this I didn't need to take an exam.

I think you may know about "jetinho" in brazil, similar to wasta in the middle east. Knowing someone can help alot.

Additionally if you can teach a few courses in commercial English schools like CCAA, you can use that for a base and run a newspaper ad yourself to start getting private students. These schools don't pay much but you can charge the going rate for your students.
Hope that helps, if you need more specific information, you can send me a private message.

I did a search on google on cursos de ingles salvador brasil, and came up with the url below:

I worked at Cultura Inglesa in Salvador for a short time. I just walked off the street and was interviewed immediately. A couple of days later I was offered a teaching position. My qualifications are similar to yours, but I suppose I had the added bonus of a Brazilian residence permit.

Although an affiliate of the British Council, you don't need to be British to work there - in fact there was only one other foreigner who was from the States.

There are two Culturas in Salvador. One of them is in a lovely area called Pituba. In that area there are dozens of language schools, but I'm not sure whether they would be able to organise work permits too.